Dropbox opening $600M credit line, potentially ready for IPO this year
Dropbox is expected to close on a new $600M credit line as soon as Monday as expectations grow that the successful startup may be ready for an IPO this year.
Dropbox is expected to close on a new $600M credit line as soon as Monday as expectations grow that the successful startup may be ready for an IPO this year.

I’ve been an Apple guy since forever. I bought the very first Macintosh back in 1984. My current mobile technology line-up is a 15-inch MacBook Pro with Touch Bar, 11-inch MacBook Air (now just a backup Mac), 9.7-inch iPad Pro and an iPhone SE. I’m all-in on Apple, and the ecosystem is a large part of that. Things may not always Just Work, but the Apple ecosystem gets closer to that than anyone else.
However, while I do make some use of iCloud, I’m not all-in on Apple’s cloud storage. In this piece, I compare the main cloud services out there, and finally describe the mix-and-match approach I use to get what I consider to be the best of all worlds …

Annotate is a new visual tool from cloud-based sharing service CloudApp launching today for Mac. Annotate lets you quickly create GIFs and annotated images or capture HD video workflows in a modern native tool. Dropbox also has news for Mac users as the cloud service detailed a new auto-updater for the service coming soon to macOS.

Apple’s iCloud Drive feature has matured to the point that several months ago I stopped using Dropbox on my Mac, iPhone, and iPad without having to dramatically change any workflows. I still interact with Dropbox on the web once a week to produce the 9to5Mac Happy Hour podcast, but iCloud Drive could totally replace Dropbox for me with a few additional features…

Dropbox announced today that it will soon deliver a highly requested feature to its iOS app: Split View support. This will let iPad users run Dropbox side-by-side with other Split View apps without switching between apps. While Split View is coming soon, Dropbox has loads of new features in the latest version for iOS 10 that are coming out today.

Dropbox has announced that it will be requiring some users to change their passwords, but says that no accounts have been compromised.

Dropbox is getting some notable updates today for both the mobile apps and desktop that bring a number of new productivity tools and features to the service. It’s also changing its mobile camera uploads feature for basic users to require they have the desktop app installed or a paid Pro account.
Dropbox is today announcing a new upcoming feature of its platform, codenamed Project Infinite. When Infinite rolls out, you’ll be able to see all your files and folders stored on Dropbox in the Finder, but they won’t take up any space until they are needed. The company is currently targeting the feature at business users.
This means your Dropbox storage can be far larger in total size than your local disk (as is common with modern setups of 1 TB Dropbox tiers and small SSDs) with on-demand instantaneous access to any file at any time over the Internet …

Yahoo Mail is getting a notable update today for iOS (and other mobile app users) that allows access to files stored in Google Drive, Dropbox, and GIFs on Tumblr. You can use the new feature to quickly attach a photo or other file from any of the supported services to emails.

It’s easy to drop recently-taken photos and videos into your Facebook Messenger chats directly from the camera roll, but it was less easy to share Dropbox files. This previously required you to open the Dropbox app first to grab a link to share.

The team at Bloom Built has today released the latest version of its journaling app Day One. Five since its original debut, with 40 free releases since then, Day One 2 sets the precedent for the direction of the new app. Albeit awkwardly titled, version 2 of Day One includes new overall features for both the iOS and Mac versions. Having been built from the ground up with data reliabilty and security in mind, Day One 2 lays the foundation for exciting new features to come in later versions.
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Early last year, Microsoft unveiled the Cloud Storage Partner Program enabling various cloud storage providers to integerate their tools into Office Online and Office for iOS. Microsoft’s latest announcement takes that a step further for partners in the CSPP by giving them access to real-time collaboration, and Office for iOS integration for all partners.

[Update: VLC incorrectly included Apple TV support in today’s release notes. That release is coming “very soon” but not available today. The iOS/watchOS updates are out today.]
[Update 1/12/2016: VLC for Apple TV is now available.]
The popular VLC app for playing a variety of media formats not supported by iTunes has now made its way to the new Apple TV. We heard in September that VLC for Apple TV was in the works, and last month the team started accepting beta testers. Today VLC for Mobile delivered a major update that includes the first Apple TV version as well as a handful of new features on iPhones and iPads.

In a new blog post today, Dropbox has announced the shuttering of the Mailbox app it acquired in 2013, along with the Carousel photos app that launched last year. The beta build of Mailbox for Mac has not seen an update in quite some time, while the iOS version had been left to stagnate, leading many to believe this was the case already, but today’s announcement finally confirms it.
Dropbox says that the reason for the shutdowns was that company had “increased our team’s focus on collaboration and simplifying the way people work together.”

Two weeks ago Upthere, the cloud company co-founded by former OS X chief Bertrand Serlet, officially launched after several years of stealth development. Details were still sparse on what exactly Upthere would offer aside from being a different kind of cloud service option for your data. Now Upthere is officially launching its first products in beta: Upthere Home and Upthere Camera.
The idea behind Upthere is that data connections are plenty fast for a lot of people but local storage is a growing issue. Cloud services like Dropbox and iCloud tackle different areas of the problem is different ways, but Upthere believes keeping everything on the server then bringing it to your device on demand is the suitable approach. I got the chance to try out each of the new apps overnight, and while my data is spread across iCloud and Dropbox right now, Upthere’s new apps make a good first impression and look promising.
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In an effort to make PDF documents more accessible and beneficial for customers, Adobe and Dropbox are teaming up to offer integration in Acrobat DC, Acrobat Reader, and in Dropbox’s site and apps. Dropbox and Adobe customers will first notice the integration in Acrobat DC and Reader on the desktop with Acrobat Reader and Dropbox for iOS picking up the integration later this year. For Acrobat users, Dropbox integration means three things: easily find and send files stored in Dropbox using Acrobat in a single workflow, manipulate and collaborate with PDF files using either service including Adobe eSign integration, and ensure documents are accessible through Dropbox wherever you’re working.
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Readdle today released a new addition to its giant collection of productivity apps for iOS with the debut of Spark. Spark is described in short as “fast and smart email for your iPhone” while its core features include tons of customization options and intelligent notification and filtering options that help take the stress out of email. Though Spark is only the latest third party email app to land on the iPhone, it is the first solid email client I’ve used on the Apple Watch so far. How does it compare to Apple’s own Mail app in this case?
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Dropbox is rolling out a new version of its iPhone and iPad app today with a new features including commenting and mentions, a new ‘Recent’ files tab, and 1Password integration. Dropbox for iOS will also gain the ability to create Microsoft Office files including Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents directly from the app soon.
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Dropbox for iPhone and iPad users is getting a lot more powerful today as the latest version includes a new action extension for iOS 8. This allows you to save information from various apps to Dropbox on iOS without having to open the cloud-syncing app.
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The VLC for iOS app–a favorite media player for many–has returned to the App Store in some countries and is expected to be available for all shortly. Some existing US users (us included!) are also reporting on Reddit being able to update to the latest version (2.4.1) if they have the previous version from before it was removed.
The app has something of a checkered history in the App Store, first removed from the store way back in 2011 after a licensing dispute; the original open-source developers claiming that the App Store terms were incompatible with the GNU Public License for the code. The app finally returned in 2013 before disappearing once more last September …
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Dropbox has announced through an email to users on older versions of OS X that it will soon be discontinuing support for computers running Leopard or other older versions of the operating system. Users still running anything older than OS X 10.6 will need to upgrade in order to continue using future versions of the Dropbox app.
Users who don’t upgrade will still be able to use the web-based Dropbox manager, but will be automatically signed out of the Mac app. From that point forward, they will not be able to login back into the Mac client until they are on a newer version of OS X.
The changes will go into effect on May 18th, so users still have plenty of time to upgrade their software (or hardware, if necessary). The full email is included below:

Dropbox today officially announced its Dropbox for Business API allowing corporate IT systems to integrate the cloud-syncing platform for businesses into their own solutions. Dropbox says its newly announced Business API (application programming interface) will let developers take advantage of “team-level functionality” and corporate partners to further integrate Dropbox for Business into their own systems. Specifically, the Dropbox for Business API will provide the following benefits for partners:
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Dropbox announced today that an incoming update hitting the App Store today will offer the ability to rename fils and folders and more.
Today’s update to the iOS app includes a new “more actions button” that will let users rename files, folders and access other functions: We’ve added an easy-access more actions button next to the sharing icon in the upper right-hand corner that leads to a set of file options so you can quickly do things like rename or move a file…To rename files straight from the Dropbox, simply choose Rename from the more actions button as you’re previewing. Rename folders by swiping to the right from the file list view and tapping the rename icon.
Dropbox also points out that the latest apps have a new disappearing toolbar that provides more screen real estate when viewing files and folders in addition to a few other new features. Our new toolbar disappears (and reappears) as you need it, leaving valuable screen space for a full view into your photos or important files. Simply tap once anywhere within your photo or file to toggle between the toolbar and full screen.
That new disappearing toolbar (which was present in the last version of the app as well) includes an edit button for Microsoft Office files as part of the company’s recent integration with the Office mobile apps.
The updated Dropbox app for iOS, version 3.6, will be arriving on the App Store today.
• You can now rename your files and folders!
• Swipe right on a folder to see more actions, including rename.
• We’ve moved a few things around – there’s a new more actions button (⋯) when viewing files
• On iPhones, the more actions button (⋯) also includes the full file na

Following an announcement earlier this month that Microsoft was adding Dropbox integration for syncing and sharing to the Office for iOS apps, Dropbox announced today that the feature is now available in its latest app updates for iOS and Android.
The integration essentially allows users to tap into Dropbox storage directly from within the Office mobile apps, but it will also include the ability to send links to files from Office using Dropbox, open documents from Dropbox in Office, and more. Dropbox has instructions on how to use the new integration with Microsoft’s Office apps on its website.
To get started, make sure your Dropbox app is up to date on your iPhone, iPad, or Android phone, then open any Office doc, spreadsheet, or presentation in your Dropbox. Tap the new Edit icon (shown above) to start editing in the latest Office apps. When you’re done, your changes will be saved back to Dropbox automatically.
You can get the new features through the latest Dropbox app for iOS starting today and the latest versions of Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Office apps. The integration is also expected to arrive for web users early next year.